Weird clonzapam dosing

[Jceed117]

So I’m prescribed clonzapam.5 mg 3 times a day. My doc has me take 2 an hour before bed and then a half mid morning and a half early evening. I feel like this is weird  I also feel like it’s not working effectively like when I wake up I’m super groggy and don’t feel it’s effects besides grogginess. And feel the need to take it when I wake up.  I fight till about 11 am then take it  and normally then I’m ok till 4.  I’m diagnosed with panic disorder.  Was since I was very young.  And yes I understand dangers of benzodiazepines.  We tried SSRI’s and such but I have IBS so nothing sat well.  I’ve also noticed that sometimes when I take my meds I feel like it’s working where as others I don’t feel like I took it at all. Could this be generic issues with variations between each pill?  I’ve also tried more than one generic. And had a bad IBS reaction to one.  I wish I could just feel better like I was when I first started.  I’m on week 5 of starting clonzapam. Worked well the first 2 weeks. But I was in 2x a day  taking a full.5 before bed then half morning half after noon.  He upped it because I was slightly anxious during the gap and he said a higher dose at night will help throughout the day.  That hasn’t seemed to be the case.  Should I go against his prescription pattern and take .5 am .5 afternoon and .5 before bed? I feel like that would work so much better than this weird cycle.  He’s a old doctor and from what I heard. Quick to cut off patients and I can’t afford to find a new doc right now

[Paxiled]

IBS is a digestive problem.  It isn't a real thing in and of itself, it's more of a description of symptoms.  There are ways of working on it that might fix that problem, though of course there are no guarantees of anything.  If you're on medication for the IBS, it might very well be making sure it sticks around rather than helping it to go away, depending on what you might be taking.  Seeing a holistic nutritionist and experimenting with your diet might actually fix the darned thing rather than just accepting this as a permanent part of your life.  For example, let's say you have a wheat problem or a dairy problem, very common problems people have but don't know they have.  If you found that out and it worked and the IBS went away, well, you'd be able to take ssris and handle the digestive problems they present.  Sometimes the problem with antidepressants, and also with benzos, is interference with magnesium absorption, and that's important for digestion.  So my first thought reading this is, have you ever worked on actually fixing this problem, which is a problem with your digestive system?  I mean, you might have tried everything under the sun and none of it worked and you are where you are, but it's possible you haven't tried to do this because your doctor doesn't dive deep.  As for the clonazepam, it hasn't happened lately on this site, but some years ago there was a lot of discussion about the generic not working for people.  It depended on which company made the generic.  Recently this came up as well with Wellbutrin.  Generics are not the same as the brand name drugs, they are similar.  Many people do in fact find the brand names work a whole lot better, but these days it's not easy to afford them -- the whole health care system has evolved to force us all to use generics and the price of brand name drugs has gone up correspondingly and insurance companies often don't cover them or only cover a small portion of the cost.  The only way of finding out, of course, is to try the brand name and see if you get better results.  The other thing I'd recommend, and I know you're having money issues with your health care, but psychiatrists generally do this a whole lot better than regular docs.  You don't say if you're seeing a psychiatrist or not.  A problem with using benzos for sleep is that they actually interfere with normal sleep patterns, so although they are sedating because that's an unwanted side effect of taking them, they are not a sleep remedy and they often do make people drowsy when they wear off.  Now, an ssri  can be pretty sedating too, so you might have that same problem if you were able to find one that didn't mess up your digestion, assuming you can't fix that problem by changing your diet and lifestyle habits.  It's also a bit odd to be taking two pills when it would be cheaper to buy 1mg pills for when you need to take two of them, but that's a small issue.   If you feel this schedule isn't working for you, talk to your doc and tell him and try a different schedule and see if it solves your problem, as you seem to feel it does.  But as to your basic question, yes, there is a difference between generics and brand names, and some people do notice a big difference, some to the extent that the generic doesn't even work at all.  Generic companies do differ in quality and almost all of them are pretty dicey operators constantly getting fined for violations, the worst being Teva.    

[Paxiled]

Personally, I believe I've always been on the generic, though it's been so long I don't remember.  Maybe I started on the brand name.  I have found that benzos are only useful when you have to do something and you're just too scared to do it, but antidepressants work all the time without wearing off until they stop working.

[Jceed117]

I’m on the clonzapam for my panic disorder prescribed by my psychiatrist. I’ve been to many gastros and none have had any real answers for me. Hence the diagnosis of IBS. Although my IBS symptoms alone are not that bad that I’m fully concerned about managing that I do plan to see a nutritionist or something to that extent at some point on I’m justodly extremel I’m just  I’m busy  and finding the time is hard well as fit a credible one in the area.  The clonzapam (when it works) does fix any gasto issues I have. None the less the side effects of the SSRI’s where too much for me to handle  and I was basically house bound those months so I cannot go through that again I personally feel they in the long run made all my anxiety/panic worse since it was non stop panic attack after days of throwing up after panic attack. I mentally can’t do that again . I’m not into taking medication to begin with but overall the clonzapam does work since my panic attacks have not happened since I started. I guess I’m just reaching for more. But in a sense it’s good so I can work on my cbt therapy and hopefully not be on anything. I initially started my clonzapam on teva which worked fine  my second fill was a generic. Named accord oddly the accord seem to work better for my panic but cause gastric upset as where the teva work so so for my panic but eliminate and stomach issues at all  

[Jceed117]

I don’t mind paying the brand name price actually is covered more than I thought it would be by insurance issue was I tried a different pharmacy and it wasn’t covered there. And my doc increased my dose Mid script so I couldn’t get it filled coved by insurance anyway since it was still to early but I had only like 5 days left and would have  had to wait 10 so I had no choice but to get the new accord generic. This time I’m getting roche brand klonopin since I’ll have enough to make it. I just hope my doc writes it DAW

[AnxiousNoMore]

Not likely generic issues because the manufacturers have to maintain FDA manufacturing standards, so more likely the anxiety just hits you harder at some times than others.
Same with your IBS since it is unpredictable, so one bad IBS reaction could be unrelated to the clonazepam. How many SSRI did you try, how long, and how many IBS issues did you experience then?

[Jceed117]

3 or 4 maybe  I’m not 100% sure.  Tried each for about a month.    That was a terrible period of time vomiting, cramping, unbelievable gas pains... basically every negative gastric symptom you could think of  on top of the increased anxiety that’s common with starting an SSRI’s  almost went to the er on on I think lexapro since the name stands out.

My biggest confusion was the dosing.  Why it’s dissed how he has it seems really strange to me